Recent Posts

Browsing the supermarket aisle is always fun, but doing it week
after week can get old, especially if you have other errands to
take care of.

It's important to be more efficient when shopping for groceries
to avoid wasting time and potentially forgetting some grocery
essentials.

Here are a couple of tips that will help you be more organized:

Keep a list. Lists are always crucial to
organization, and just to make sure you don't forget anything
or buy unnecessary items, document your weekly grocery needs.
There are plenty of ways to do so — you can keep your own
Google Doc, a text document, or a
simple notepad. There are even free printable grocery lists
online that let you check off which groceries you need. A good
one to check out is the very detailed Ultimatest grocery list (they even
have avegetarian version).

Use apps. Experiment with grocery
shopping apps and consider keeping a running list of
groceries on an app like Ziplist,
which lets you sync up with lists of other people on your phone
for convenience. You can even use discount-seeking apps
like Grocery
Pal, which shows you what items are on sale, and coupon
locator apps like Coupon
Sherpa or Yowza!!. The coupon apps will display bar codes,
which the cashier can scan to give you the discount.

Time it well. Pick the right time to go
grocery shopping. You want to avoid going when there are
crowds, because shopping and waiting in line for the cashier
may take longer than usual. It's also good to go before the
supermarket rush because most items will be in stock; this will
prevent you from having to go back if a certain item was not
available. The best dates to shop may differ depending on the
grocery store, so be sure to observe your supermarket and pick
up the crowd patterns. Lifehacker suggests Wednesday night as an ideal
time because "many grocery stores release their new
sale advertisements that day but also honor the sales items
from the previous week." Personally, I like going on Saturday
nights to avoid the crowds.

Read on for more grocery organization tips.

Find a nearby grocery emergency spot. If you
forget a few grocery essentials, make sure you have a backup
plan if there isn't a supermarket near you. This is so you
don't have to waste gas and make another trip. Consider
alternatives such as a drugstore, dollar store, or retailers
like Target. You have to be smart about
which items you're buying because the quality of some groceries
may not be up to par or they can be priced higher.

Have a revolving list of meals. It's good to
have a couple of go-to meals, which makes it easier to grocery
shop because you'll be familiar with what you need. It's also
helpful to create a monthly or weekly meal plan so you can
better anticipate your grocery needs. There are a couple of
free menu planning templates available online — here's a
simple four-week menu planner I found on
Simple Organized Living.

Organize your coupons. Keep your coupons
neatly organized by purchasing a coupon organizer ($10). There are
plenty of methods to organizing coupons, and you need to find
one that works for you. Figure out if you want to sort the
coupons alphabetically, by category, or by expiration date.
Coupon Geek has a nice list of organizing methods you might
want to try out.